6.11.2008

I once got a girl I really liked a fake ID so we could go see Juliana Hatfield. This was in the Buzz Bin early 90s, just as Hatfield's star was beginning to rise. I was a college radio DJ, and I loved explaining to the girl about the Blake Babies, a band she was a little too young to have known. It worked! She thought I was cool...for about two weeks. But it was a sweet and profoundly innocent fortnight, and I can't help but recall this feeling whenever I hear Juliana, who is about to drop her tenth solo disc How To Walk Away (August 19th on Ye Olde Records). A track from those sessions that didn't make the album, "Back To Freedom", appears on the impressive Green Owl Compilation, available at Whole Foods Stores, and benefits the green Energy Action Coalition. It bodes well for How To Walk Away that a track cast off from the disc is this strong. The times and the tone have changed, but I still get that sweet, singular feeling when I hear Hatfield's voice and guitar.

On a completely other note, just to confirm that the 'Net is indeed partially populated by sick bastards, Hatfield's website includes the following unsettling disclaimer: "Someone purporting to be ‘Juliana Hatfield’ is disseminating disturbing email messages, postings, and e-cards throughout the Internet. Please ignore any and all unsolicited anti-Semitic, racist/fascist, or sexually perverted email or e-cards sent by ‘Juliana Hatfield.’ It is not coming from me." Que? If you feel like you just gotta harass some people, why in the hell would you pretend to be Juliana Hatfield? Continuing proof that the world makes no sense.